Gulf Coast Triathlon Race Report

May 6 - May 12
S:  12,353 yds - 2hr 55min

B:  96.57 mi - 4hr 40min

R:  30.65 mi - 3hr 52min

Total:  11hr 27min 

Since racing at the beach is pretty much the best thing ever, I decided to put the Gulf Coast Triathlon on my schedule for 2013.  This half iron distance race is well known around the area and has been held annually for the past 31 years.  It also has the reputation for being the “Gulf Roast Triathlon”, as the second weekend in May is often scorching and athletes have not had a chance to acclimate to the hot weather yet.  Nonetheless, I decided to give it my best shot.  Fellow Accelerate 3 athlete Chris Borden would be in attendance, so I was looking forward to meeting and racing against him, as we are very similar in abilities.

our pad for the weekend

On Friday morning, Charles Brammer and I packed up his Excursion and headed down to Panama City.  The day was pretty jam packed, and left a little less time than desired/expected to relax and get ready for the race.  But at least we made it down with a bowl full of goodness!
 

freshly picked strawberries from Dothan, AL

 
We both anticipated getting to bed at a slightly more decent hour than 11 pm, but oh well.  The race started on Saturday at 6:15 am and transition closed at 6:00 am, so we wanted to be there by 5:15 am.  This meant leaving the condo at 4:45 am to allow for drive/park time.  Needless to say, my 3:45 am alarm came quite early.  After some aero pressed coffee, a half serving of Ultragen, and a bowl of Koala Crisp cereal with peanut butter, a banana, honey, and almond milk, we headed to the race site.  After setting up transition I met up with Chris Borden and we chatted for a little while.  It was good to hear about his training and the success that he’s having so far with Brian.  Soon after we headed down to the beach to get ready for the start.

perfect conditions for LC racing!

 
Swim - 30:21 (26th)
My wave (M25-29) was to go off at 6:40 am.  This is an important piece of information.  At 6:20 am I finished zipping up my wetsuit and started wandering around to waste a few more minutes before starting a warm-up.  At 6:28 am, I headed in the ocean to get a quick swim in to loosen up the arms.  The plan was to splash around for 5-7 minutes or so, which would give me 5-7 minutes to line up and get a good position within my wave.  After warming up a little bit I started to walk up the beach.  I was still on the shore line when I noticed a bunch of purple swim caps huddled around the start area.  What!!??  About that time, the announcer said “male 25-29 yr olds, go!”  What the heck??  I was very confused and it all happened very quickly, but my wave was starting (I think)!  Still only 90% sure that my wave was starting (maybe I misheard the announcer and there were other waves with purple caps) I jumped in with my wave near the back in horrible position and spent the next couple of minutes swimming over and around people.  After finding some open water I started to settle down and process what just happened.  At this point I remembered that the announcer had mentioned that athletes needed to enter the back of the starting line chute, which I obviously didn’t do.  Was there a timing mat in the chute that we had to cross?  Was my chip time even started?  It was pretty much the worst feeling ever.  I’m embarking on a 4.5 hour race and I don’t even know if my chip time has been started.  Motivation was way down, and I really let it get to me.  I admittedly didn’t swim as hard as I should have, and I later kicked myself for doing so.  It still felt like a good swim though, which made me even more mad because I realized I probably could have swim 29 low or so.  I later found out from Chris Borden and his wife that all the waves were started early.  I guess I should have been ready for that but in my opinion that is extremely poor form.  With 800 racers and their families on the beach, it was hard to see or hear what was going on so changing the schedule was a pretty terrible decision.  Oh well, it is what it is. 

T1 - 2:00 (4th) 

Still unsure of if my chip was even started, I made a plan to grab an event staff worker as soon as I exited the swim to get it worked out.  Luckily there was one standing at the swim exit timing mat.  I quickly told him that I did not enter the back of the starting line chute and he quickly answered that it didn’t matter and that I was good to go.  Whew…disaster averted!  Stopping to talk to him cost me about 5 seconds so it was no big deal.  My mood and attitude quickly shot way up, and after a super quick transition I was ready to crush the bike.

what my T1 looks like

Bike - 2:21:16 (21st) 
The bike plan was pretty simple: hold watts, change watts slightly depending on wind, adjust downwards if necessary, and take in calories/fluids.  The first hour of the bike was fast and with a tailwind.  I believe I hit the 40k in slightly over 60 minutes.  This only means one thing…the last half of the bike would be into a headwind.  This turned out to be true although it wasn’t too bad.  In general everything went smoothly here.  Watts were slightly higher than plan but it felt good.  Since my wave was one of the first to go off, I was completely all alone out there, as opposed to the 30-40 year olds who had the  slight advantage of being able to get some legal slingshot drafts.  All in all I was pleased with the effort, and a 2:21 is huge half iron bike PB for me.

T2 - 1:20 (38th) 
Nothing going on here, just put my socks and shoes on and I was off.

Run - 1:36:16 (24th) 
Nothing like a half ironman with a 13.5 mile run!  It may not seem like much, but when you've been racing for 4.5 hours an extra 3 minutes feels like an eternity!  Coming off the bike there was no one in front of me, but I knew that there were some 30-39 year olds that started 10 minutes behind me that would be right with me in terms of cumulative time.  I had passed local Birmingham stud Deanna Newman at mile 54 so I came out of T2 a little bit ahead of her.  Part of me was hoping that she would speed up and catch me so that we could run together.  I raced a 5k with Deanna earlier this spring and she threw down a 17:39 (only 9 seconds behind me) so I knew she would be a good person to run with.  My legs felt good starting the run but I really had to pee!  After jumping in a port-o-potty at mile 1 for about 15 seconds, I came out right in front of Deanna...perfect!  We proceeded to run the rest of the race together.  Miles 2-10 were around a 6:55 to 7:00 avg pace, some slightly slower and some slightly faster.  The last 5k was pretty brutal.  My stomach was not fully cooperating so I just focused on staying with Deanna.  At mile 12 my stomach really started to bother me so I let Deanna go and cruised in solo.  The last 5k was around a 7:20 to 7:25 avg pace so I somehow managed not to tank too terribly bad.

Charles let me use his compression boots post-race

Total - 4:31:10 (13th)
All in all I was please with the race.  Besides the hiccup on the swim and having to slow down a little bit during the last 5k of the run, the race went well.  Every time I race one of these half ironman events I'm reminded of how hard they are to get right.  I'm really looking forward to knocking out a few more of them this year and really dialing in my efforts.  Big congrats to Chris who dropped a 4:27:48 for 9th overall.  I'll be seeing him again later this year, hopefully the outcome will be different!

how it feels to leave the beach :(

Insert Creative-non-race-update Title Here

Apr 29 - May 5
S:  13,710 yds - 3hr 23min

B:  179.22 mi - 9hr 56min

R:  29.02 mi - 3hr 42min

Total:  17hr 1min 

Finally, a somewhat "normal" and rather solid week in the bag, culminating with a ridiculous but very rewarding bike set!  After racing last weekend I had one more week of solid training to get in before getting back into the half ironman distance at Gulf Coast Triathon.  You just can't beat racing at the beach!  If history repeats itself the Gulf of Mexico swim will likely be super choppy, the bike will be super windy but still fast, and the run will be super hot but awesome.  Seeing as how it's been so cold around here lately, temperatures might be pretty ideal for this race, which is typically pretty toasty.   I'm also looking forward to going head-to-head with fellow Alabamian Chris Borden.  After chatting with Chris late last year, he soon signed on with Brian at Accelerate3 and has subsequently starting crushing it...should be a good race!  Also, the next few weeks will bring a change in how I spend about half of my training time...here's a hint:

clue #1

Capital of Dreams Triathlon Race Report

Apr 22 - Apr 28
S:  12,423 yds - 3hr 6min

B:  68.51 mi - 3hr 28min

R:  25.10 mi - 3hr 6min

Total:  9hr 40min 

The first race of tri season is always an interesting one.  You never know what to expect.  I mean, you kind of do but at the same time you don’t.  I knew my winter training was on target.  Running is at an all-time fastest level, bike power is where it needs to be, and swim fitness is as good as it has ever been thanks to some increased yardage so far in 2013.  BUT, how all of these plays together in the context of a race is a different story.  On paper I should be faster than last year, but it seems like there’s always some season opener rust to knock off while racing the intermediate distance (1.5k swim, 40k bike, 10k run).  All that being said, Lori and I traveled 90 miles south of Birmingham to Montgomery, AL for the Capital of Dreams Triathlon.  This would be the inaugural race, so I was excited to see if a race this close to home would be any good.  Rumor had it that the bike course would be fast...awesome!  The goal for this race was to win.  I knew that Birmingham local and a training partner of mine Jeffrey Shelley would provide some stiff competition, but I thought I might have the slight nod.  I recognized a few others on the list but no one who I thought could run away with it.  However, you never know what kind of no-name hot shot might show up on race day.  All that being said, I was feeling confident and ready to race fast!  Here’s how it went:

Swim - 20:57 (6th) 
The swim was a point-to-point 1500 meter course in the Alabama River.  One hour prior to race time, all the racers loaded up onto a tugboat for the ride up to the swim start (pretty cool, actually).  After stopping at the 400 meter mark to let all the sprint racers start, we made our way to the 1500 meter point.  On the way to the start line I chatted with a guy (Ben Reynolds) who had just moved to Birmingham from Montgomery.  He had a swimming background and looked pretty fit so I figured this guy would be in the mix for sure.  The start was of the time trial format (so dumb) and I was the 5th person to start, with Ben 3 slots in front of me.  The water was pretty chilly (~68 deg) but felt really good after a minute or two.  With no chance for a warm up I tried to avoid sprinting straight from the start.  After a minute or so I seemed to find a good rhythm and the rest of the swim was pretty boring.  I remember being passed by a guy and hopped on his feet for awhile but then he started swimming zig-zags all over the place so I gave up.  He was swimming faster than me but never really gained any distance because of his bad line.

T1 - 2:08 (2nd) 

T1 was an long run from the river to a cool little train station covering with multiple staircases and turns to navigate along the way.  I got my wetsuit down to my waist as I exited the dock and as soon as I did that I stopped, took off the wetsuit, and then starting running the rest of the way to transition.  Lori yelled at me that the leader (Ben) had about 3 minutes on me.  Crap!  After quickly grabbing my helmet, I was off to try and reel him in.

de-wetsuiting

Bike - 59:25 (2nd) 

Considering I was 3 minutes down, I decided that this was going to be an aggressive bike.  If you want to win you’ve got to give yourself a shot.  With 3 minutes to make up I knew I had to go hard.  After navigating out to the main road I put down my head and started to hammer.  Local Birmingham guy David Meadows had a superb swim and was out in front of me, as was one other guy about 20 seconds up the road.  After passing David I gradually started reeling in the other guy and passed him a few miles later.  At the first turnaround of this 2 loop 20k course, I could see that Ben was a strong biker and that catching him was going to be a tough task.  But I was feeling good and my watts were high, so I knew I wasn’t out of it.  The rest of the bike was uneventful.  I made up 2 minutes or so on Ben, but also knew that I had Jeffrey Shelley and one other guy right on my heels.  Coming to the end of the bike I was hurting but feeling like I could lay down a good run.  My nutrition was the normal 2 watered down gu roctanes, 3/4 of a bottle of water, and 3/4 of a bottle of EFS with a few extra salt tablets dumped in.

finishing the bike

T2 - 0:40 (2nd) 

T2 was smooth and fast.  No mistakes here and I was quickly on the run course. 

Run - 34:50 (3rd) 

I did my homework before the race.  The 10k run course was a 2 loop 5k.  Each 5k started out flat for a half mile, climbed for a mile, and then was flat/downhill for the rest.  I knew I could push it on the climb and then would still be able to maintain speed on the downhill while recovering a little bit.  For the first lap I was completely alone but settled right in and clicked off miles 1 and 2 in 6:29 and 6:21.  After finishing the first loop I noticed I was only at 2.85 miles…I knew the loop was supposed to be 5k because I had studied the course…did it change?  Did I cut the course?  It was pretty much the worst feeling ever, not knowing if I had cut the course or not.  I said screw it and kept running (nothing else to do).  Mile 3 was 6:07 and about that time I noticed a guy making up ground behind me.  Mile 4 was 6:28, and then I got caught as we were still on the climbing portion of the course.  The dude passed me hard and I went all in to stay on his feet.  Maybe I was slacking off earlier in the race or maybe I just needed some motivation, I don’t know.  On the dude’s heels we ran the next mile in 5:49 and then he really started to turn it up.  At this point I noticed that he had started about 30 seconds behind me, so I would need to gap him by 30 seconds in order to win.  Considering I was at my limit sitting on his heels, it was not going to happen.  Then he really started to open it up and we covered the last 7/10 of a mile in 5:18 pace.  As we neared the crowds and the finish I sprinted around him and crossed the line ahead, even though it was of no use since he would have had to lose 30 seconds on me.  As it turned out the run was 5.67 miles...about a half mile short of 10k.

on the podium

Total - 1:57:58 (3rd OA) 

I ended up 3rd overall, only 12 seconds behind Ben and 27 seconds behind the other guy.  Unfortunately, the run was a half mile short of 10k which could have easily changed the final podium (although we will never know).  Oh well, it is what it is.  I was pleased with my swim, although I still have some work to do in that area.  Bike watts were at the upper end of where I thought they would be so I can’t complain there.  Props to Jeffrey Shelley who out-split me on the bike by 12 seconds.  Transitions were smooth and flawless so no problems there.  The run went as well as expected.  I feel much stronger off the bike than last year, and I was able to really dig deep when I had to hop on feet.  Based on how the last 1.5 miles went, I might could be a little more aggressive early on.  All in all it was a great first race of the year, capped off with a stop at the Peach Park in Clanton, AL for some cobbler!


about to crush some cobbler!